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Chinese Journal of Management Science ›› 2025, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (4): 251-264.doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2021.1113

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Live-streaming e-Commerce: Management Challenges and Potential Research Directions

Yongbo Xiao(), Xuhong Wang, Jing Yu, Cui Zhao   

  1. Research Center for Contemporary Management,Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities,School of Economics & Management,Tsinghua University,Beijing 100084,China
  • Received:2021-06-04 Revised:2022-05-24 Online:2025-04-25 Published:2025-04-29
  • Contact: Yongbo Xiao E-mail:xiaoyb@sem.tsinghua.edu.cn

Abstract:

Ever since MOGU, which is an NYSE-listed online shopping platform from China, introduced live-streaming e-commerce in 2016, live-streaming e-commerce has achieved rapid development in recent years. It has become an important sales channel for traditional sellers and brands, and has penetrated into a majority of industries. Compared with traditional e-commerce, live-streaming e-commerce is distinguished by real-time interaction between watchers and streamers, nature of social commerce, economy of fans, and traffic bi-diversion between the content and e-commerce departments of platforms. It also enables supply chain management by shortening the supply chain and scale of economics in order processing and fulfillment. Live-streaming e-commerce platforms such as Tiktok and Kuaishou, live-streamers or key opinion leaders (KOLs), multi-channel network (MCN) institutions, brands (i.e., manufactures, wholesalers, and retailers), consumers, and governmental departments have formed into a complex live-streaming e-commerce ecosystem. The ecosystem contains many new business models (such as brand-based and KOL-based live-streaming, streamer as a selling agent, a purchasing agent, or self-endorsement, live-streaming auction, blind box live-streaming, and outdoors live-streaming) and new supply chain structure; and members of the ecosystem encounter many new management challenges, including the absorbing and monetization of fans, the competitive and cooperative relationship between KOLs and brand providers, and high return rate in live-streaming e-commerce. On the basis of analyzing the challenges of live-streaming e-commerce that are different from traditional e-commerce, a survey towards the existing literaturerelevant is provided to live-streaming e-commerce, and the potential research issues and research directions are pointed that deserve attention from the perspective of operation and supply chain management.

Key words: live-streaming e-commerce, fans economy, operations and supply chain management, pricing and revenue management

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